


Precious Metals

by Allthecircles



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adoption, BAMF Phil Coulson, BAMF Tony Stark, F/M, Gen, Loki (Marvel) is a Good Bro, Nick Fury Knows All, Nick Fury is Not Amused, Other, Parent Tony Stark, Protective Nick Fury, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, References to Drugs, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2020-05-07 11:21:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19208359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allthecircles/pseuds/Allthecircles
Summary: precious/ˈprɛʃəs/adjective: of great value; not to be wasted or treated carelessly.To Tony Stark, more thing, most people were expendable. But some things, some people, were precious.This fic is not compliant with anything after Marvel's Avengers (the first movie).





	1. Reacquainted

**Author's Note:**

> So, here's another fic I've been hiding away! This was intended to be mostly fluff with a bit of plot but the whole team gave me the side-eye, so we'll see where this goes. I can't swear for the accuracy or believability of anything that happens in this fic, so, as always, suspend your disbelief and enjoy!

To see her Stark plummeting out of the sky over a ravaged New York had quite literally almost stopped her heart.  
Mind still muddy from the last high, something like a scream had escaped her as she tried to watch the news, find her phone and dial her remote at the same time.  
Obviously, Jena was a mess.  
It took another 20 minutes to calm down, and a further ten to find her cell phone, hiding under the couch she had fallen asleep on. By that time, the world had stopped twisting at the edges of her vision and she had had the sense to turn the volume up on the TV, and so caught the newscasters explanation of 'yesterday'.  
Panic had gripped her for only a second before the rest of the woman's sentence - 'miraculously, he survived, thanks in part to the Hulk' - penetrated the fog stubbornly settled around her ears. On the inside of her head. Yeah, she was never getting high again.  
An hour later found her sneaking out of the ratty apartment she shared with the other girls - all already out working - beating a hasty retreat to the entrance to the sewer she used to slip away from Maxwell. Of course, she was dressed for work, in case the man caught her, and she didn't think she'd escape being smacked around for being 'late' - which was a relative term because most customers didn't come looking for their services until at least half past ten but Max was anal that way - but at least he wouldn't automatically think she was trying to ditch work altogether.  
If worse came to worse, she could swipe some money from Stark. If she got to see him. The rest of the news had reported that the other superheroes -and wasn't that a trip? - had all last been seen at Stark Tower and Jen didn't have any illusions as to who the man would rather spend time with.  
She just needed to see him.  
Stark and she hadn't ever had a good relationship. For starters, she'd pegged him for a john and he'd immediately spotted that she was waaaaay to young to be on the streets. Whatever he'd had in mind by bringing her to his cushy Malibu house Jen was sure she'd never thought it'd end with her getting a whole house to herself. And free from Maxwell. Even if it hadn't lasted, Jen could appreciate that.  
She made it to Stark Tower, with its lone 'A' in less time than she thought possible. The building was, surprisingly, both open and not surrounded by a teeming horde of press monkeys. She supposed the roads being torn up as they were had something to do with it. Or maybe no one wanted to tangle with the Hulk.  
Stark had never actually invited her here, but he had given her access codes, even while mentioning that she was keyed into the security system and shouldn't have any problems accessing the personal floors, one of which was apparently for her. She ignored him, of course. She wasn't falling for that again.  
Sure enough, there on the little blue display screen above the elevator keypad the Words 'Welcome, Jena' blinked at her cheerily before the elevator began a steady climb to the top. Knowing Stark'd said she'd have access and seeing it be real was...a trip, for one. Adults - and she still called older people that because most days she still felt twelve - didn't often say what they meant or did what they said. Tony had only been marginally better in that he'd done most of what he'd promised her that night, and even though she hadn't agreed to it, the fact that some things didn't get done and that the whole thing fell through days later had gotten him lumped in with the rest of the undependable adults in her life.  
This was depressing.  
Jena shifted in the small, moving room, painfully aware of how short her skirt truly was in the bright artificial lights. Usually it didn't bother her, and she scowled when she realized that somewhere? She still wanted Stark's damn approval. Moodily, she folded her arms, wishing she'd thought to bring a jacket - there were more than enough in the apartment from men who couldn't risk their wives smelling something odd - but there was nothing for it. Stark could come to his own conclusions, his own judgements. Whatever.  
She just needed to see him.

 

_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

 

Never let it be said that she could not make an entrance.  
Jena supposed that, seeing as everyone who should have access to the penthouse was actually in the penthouse meant that the penthouse elevator popping up and springing open would gain its fair bit of attention.  
She hadn't expected for Stark to drop his glass.  
Or for the entire room to go silent.  
And really, that last observation? Background info, only possible after years of having to know what the people around her were doing so she didn't get surprised. Because in the foreground? Stark was marching toward her with a stupid, wet look in his eyes like he was looking at some really rare, really precious metal. Or something.  
Before she knew just what to do with that - because yeah, the part of her that still wanted him to make good on that adoption? _Could not even_ at that look - Stark had grabbed her in the most gentle crushing grip she had ever been held in and Stark actually, literally, breathed her name.  
Before the quibbling, needy part of her could convince her body to melt against him, Jena found her voice. "We had an agreement about touching, Stark."  
Stark squeezed her, not seeming to care about their agreement - which had never been ratified, especially since she'd ended up sobbing into his chest  _minutes_ after they'd made said agreement - or that his guests were all giving them some serious looks, from shocked curiosity to a venomous kind of disbelief that Jen did not want to be around to hear the explanation to. But if the news was right that guy was from the 40's; a white man hugging a black girl was probably still a big deal for him. For that, Jen was tempted to return the hug.  
Only just.  
She settled for poking Stark in his side. "At least let me look at you? You scared me half to death. You'd think you'd at least let me know you were going to war with an army of aliens in a flying metal suit!"  
That got a reaction. "I did call you, long before the fighting started." Stark had separated enough to give her that hard, wet, intense look again, the one she didn't have a clue of figuring out because Stark was acting all wrong. Again. "I called your phone at least -"  
"47 times, yeah I know." She shot a cautious look around the room again, taking note of the blatant staring, only allowing herself to relax a fraction when she didn't spot _him_. "And another 50 times yesterday, though I don't know how you managed _that_ flying around aliens and nearly getting yourself killed." She took a full step backwards and gave him a pointed once-over when he released her but held onto her hands. "I'm glad to see you're in one piece, at least. Now I can get out of here before your keeper gets back."  
Stark, for his part, kept quiet, but his eyes had that cold, calculating fire in it like the night he'd tangled with Maxwell. Jena realized, too late, that he'd given her a more serious once over and found her outfit lacking. In fact, her skirt could burst into flames from the strength of his glare alone, and a great many conclusions were being drawn behind those eyes, if she didn't know better. _Uh-oh._ Something in her stomach clenched and she tried to pull away. Stark, of course, did not relent.  
"There's a rather large piece of the puzzle I'm missing, J, and I need you to help me find it." He tilted his head to the left, eyes flicking up to scrutinize her face. "Who exactly is my keeper?"  
And Jena was not going to go there. Not with him. Not tonight. "I gotta go, Stark." She yanked her hands down, bending her knees to give her more momentum, careful to catch herself on the turn as her hands slipped out of his - _roughdrysowarm_ \- so she could scramble back to press the elevator call button. "Max will be waiting and unless you're going to cover me for tonight I gotta find some customers quick."  
That, if anything, was the wrong thing to say.  
Stark _picked her up._ Jena was well aware that she was on the lighter end of the weight spectrum. She was all of five feet tall and although curvy enough to do fairly well with attracting customers, her poor eating and sleeping habits and a bit of recreational drug use when she needed to psyche herself up to go out to work all negatively effected her health, which meant that she did not weigh whole lot near what she was supposed to. That being said, Stark was also on the shorter end of the height spectrum and she'd never thought those designer suits hid the muscles she could feel bunching against her skin, but she supposed four years was long enough time for the man to hit the gym. The only reason she didn't attempt to hit him - this was *Stark*, he wouldn't have hit her back - was because he'd fought off an alien horde yesterday and had hit the ground pretty hard and as wrong-footed as she felt right this minute she didn't want to cause him any more pain.  
For now.  
He set her on a suddenly-clear couch then sat himself on the coffee table, scooting forward to trap her knees between his own and wouldn't you know it? They were now eye to eye. So Jen had the glorious privilege to see that Stark was well and truly furious, and only just barely holding it back. All of her quips and complaints died on the tip of her tongue and her heart stuttered behind her ribcage, just like that night four years ago, and Jena suddenly felt very, very small.  
But not in danger, which was the _weirdest_ thing.  
"I haven't seen or heard from you in about four years, so forgive me if I'm a bit confused, but I'm sure I cleared your debt with Maxwell."  
That wasn't a question, but Jena figured some kind of answer was wise. She nodded, careful to look just submissive enough to not pose a threat but not as terrified as she currently felt because when Tony did his whole Merchant of Death thing? Completely terrifying.  
"So how did you end up working for him again?"  
This wasn't right! Stark wasn't being his regular, blase' self and Jena was quickly becoming not able to deal. Because that look? That would fit on some predatory dinosaur with ease, and it was doing something to the small part of her that wanted someone to protect her. Because that look was pure wrath for someone, and Jena got the distinct feeling it wasn't her.  
She tried, a few times, to speak, but honestly she didn't know how to form the words. Looking away helped. "After you left for Afganistan, Stane came by and said you'd changed your mind and that I should leave. He offered to tip and everything and he wasn't, you know, rough..." And really, Jena got the distinct impression she should really pay more attention to what came out of her mouth because the way Stark could go completely still and his eyes look like burning coals? Absolutely amazing. With a dollop of terrifying, even if that wasn't aimed at you.  
Stark seemed to lose all his color he was so pale, and there were muffled swear words from various places in the room - because oh _riiiiight_ they had an audience. Jena had to mentally rewind and see what she'd mentioned - _oh_. Oh that was bad. How had she let that slip? "Stark, its okay. I was used to it, remember? And I've had worse - "  
Wrong thing to say.  
A vase on the other side of the room exploded, a clap of thunder fairly burst her eardrums and Tony's eyes slid shut as he *trembled*.  
This was...frightening. Stark hadn't been nearly as mad when he'd read her for shame the night he'd taken her to his huge house out in Malibu. And as much as logically, she knew being this close to an angry man was badbadbad, Stark honestly didn't seem angry with her, but instead *for* her. Jen figured in had something to do with Stane, and couldn't find a morsel of pity for the man. He deserved whatever Stark would dish out.  
She chanced a glance around the room and found that everyone looked more or less pissed off. Jena could get that on an abstract sort of level, even though they didn't know her. Most of the white people she'd met hadn't liked to be reminded of some of the realities of her life since it didn't fit into their cushy way of life or common experiences. She didn't think it was a race thing; it was more of a don't-talk-about-it-because-it-makes-us-uncomfortable type of thing. There were a few that had gotten *righteously angry* on her behalf, which she figured Stark's team - the Avengers? - fell into. She'd wait and see, though, because adults? Not reliable. Righteous anger today could turn to aloof indifference or apologetic inaction overnight.  
And then Stark opened his eyes. Jena would forever remember that look. Because that look? Everything. It was an apology and a promise and vows and protection and revenge and fierce and safe and Jena almost didn't know how to handle it. As it was, she only barely held back tears.  
"I'm sorry." Stark's voice was a breeze over a desert.  
"It's okay." Jena didn't know how the words made it past the lump in her throat.  
"No, its not. When I got back Stane told me you'd taken a friend and gone to backpack through The Philippines. I didn't have a reason to not believe him, and money came out of your accounts in all the right places. You texted me back quickly enough so I thought everything was fine, you just didn't want to be around some old guy who could boss you around yet and we'd figure out the father-daughter thing later - "  
"You don't have to - " Jena struggled to speak through her tears because really? Some of the things she'd done for Maxwell those early days when she'd gone back? The things she'd done for food - and she'd had accounts? _Plural?_ \- "It's okay, I know that wasn't real. You don't have to pretend."  
Stark stared at her a half second before he used her hands - when did that happen? - to draw her forward till she had no choice but to meet his blazing eyes. "I filed those papers the very next day."  
And that was just too much. The dam broke. Jena lost it.

 

_*_*_*_*_*

 

Personally, Tony wanted to give a very big "Fuck you!" to the universe.  
He'd only just began to make peace with the craphole that was his life before Agent - and that would likely hurt for months - had shown up and handed him that folder. Yeah, Pepper was a big help along the 'get it together, Stark, there's a life to be living' road, but that road was a rough one, and he'd needed a bit of extra time on some places.  
Jena Pandora Stark had been the one stable star in the crazily spinning planetary maze that was his life. She was safe, away from danger, able to spread her wings and figure out who she was without abusive pimps and shithole foster parents.  
To find out that she _hadn't been_ hurt more than Tony's vast vocabulary could describe.  
He watched her breathe, resting on his chest, more or less draped across him. Not that he minded. He couldn't mind. She could pretend to be asleep for as long as she wanted. Tony felt he owed her at least that much.  
He was painfully aware that he had utterly failed. He'd known, both when he'd made the offer and when he'd signed the papers, that he hadn't had a clue on how to be anyone's father. That hadn't seemed to matter to him too much, as she had been months away from eighteen and wouldn't really need anyone to call 'dad'. He'd convinced himself that he was fine with offering her a name that could get her almost anywhere and access to enough money to get her everywhere else. She'd asked for a house to call her own, away from his shenanigans, with a backyard for a garden. He'd agreed without complaint. His only request was that she keep him updated, and let him know if she needed anything.  
And then, nothing. He hadn't had much time to think about it before the trip to Afghanistan and after he returned...well, he hadn't been in the right frame of mind for much. He'd expected her to pop up, if at least to make sure he was alive so she wouldn't have to deal with being the Stark heir - a point that had freaked her out quite a bit when they'd discussed it - but when Obadiah had explained that she'd gone on a backpacking trip and that he'd been keeping her updated, Tony had relaxed. After Stane...it took a bit longer to wrap his head around a lot, and when he did reach out, asking for a picture from the Philippines, Jena had obliged. It never occurred to him that she'd just pulled the photo from Google.  
He'd thrown himself into putting the company back together, removing Stane's cronies from the board of directors, reminding himself to eat, and then palladium. Hammer. Vanko. That was all so much that when Jen's purchases started coming from Thailand and then further east, he'd decided not to contact her. Sure, he'd setup a whole protocol with JARVIS in the event of his death, to help her deal, and of course he had factored Pepper into that plan though she didn't know it yet, but he'd decided Jena had deserved a break from the type of stress knowing he was dying could bring and let her travel.  
At the time, he thought it was a damned mature decision. _Idiot._  
Now? Jena should count herself lucky if he _ever_ let her out of his sight again. They were burning this outfit at the first possible opportunity; she could wear some of his clothes until they were able to go shopping. Hell, if he had to fly to the nearest undamaged Macy's and buy things himself, he would, the press be damned.  
That had been one of the main reasons he'd kept the whole thing hush-hush: he had more than enough paparazzi following him at any given time and neither of them wanted to expose her to those vultures. She, because she was uncomfortable with the attention and knew that "TONY STARK ADOPTS UNDERAGE PROSTITUTE" would be a headline they wouldn't be able to get rid of and he because he had many enemies, and he did not want to give them anyone to use against himself.  
For about the fifth time that night, and maybe the fiftieth since he'd first met her, Tony wondered at how he could possibly care for someone so quickly.  
Jena had been as prickly as could be, sarcastic and mulish and downright rude when she chose to be that first night, but there was something about her eyes that screamed "Frightened Bunny-Deer Hybrid. Please Cuddle." Which that night? Would have gotten him kicked square in the nads. Which was why he'd promptly wrapped her in a blanket and plopped her on the couch. It wasn't so much that she hadn't been prepared to...work...when he'd picked her up. It was that he didn't stick to the script, had been completely unpredictable and then had called her out on her age. It didn't help that he'd then, jerk that he was, managed to accurately guess at most of her life story and then tell her what exactly he thought of the choices that she'd made.  
He hadn't wanted to be mean, exactly. It was just that something in his gut screamed at him to protect her, and the easiest way to do that had been to get her unsettled as quickly as possible so she could see how much help he could be. He'd thought he had stayed aloof and unaffected, but the two weeks between that night and his flight to the Jericho demonstration had been spent obsessively reorganizing every single asset he had to make sure that Jena was never discovered by anyone who wanted to do him harm and that she would never want for anything as long as she lived, ordering just about _anything_ he thought a seventeen year old girl would like or appreciate, and ruthlessly hunting down any and all of her former foster parents and ruining their lives. Jena would be safe and sane if he had anything to say about it.  
He had not counted on Stane.  
The house he'd bought for her in New Jersey had had the beginnings of a small orchard behind the house, and hadn't come from any of the on-record subaccounts. Stane should not have ever known about that, should never have known about _her_ , and it burned Tony even now to know just how much of a reach the bastard had had into his life.  
To tell his new *daughter* that he'd changed his mind, when she probably had been wondering or fearing that very same thing...to rape her - because Tony didn't care how consensual it had looked, Jena had been seventeen and definitely emotionally compromised and Stane was old as hell and fully aware of what he was doing - made Tony want to find the man's skeleton and set it on fire.  
Ignoring her still pretending to be asleep, Tony crushed Jena to his chest. She squirmed for a moment before settling, her breathing finally evening out, and Tony pulled the throw blanket up over her shoulders. Bruce had draped it over them both some time ago, and Tony had looked up to see the room empty, Bruce retreating on bare feet through the door behind the couch. That was good. Tony didn't know how he was going to explain any of this to team - because they'd just saved the world so yes, they were a team whether they agreed with him or not - _doesn't play well with others his ass_ \- then realized he didn't have to explain to anyone, save Pepper. Everyone else...well, a partial explanation. At least letting them know Jena would be sticking around. Because again? Never letting her out of his sight.  
They'd figure this father-daughter thing out together.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

From her vantage point, Jena decided Loki didn't look good. She sat settled in the back seat of Stark's outrageous limo, a _literal_ fur draped across her lap, toes tucked under Tony's thigh. Loki stood next to Thor, wearing a thick muzzle over his mouth (and that alone gave her all sorts of mixed emotions). Where Thor looked at home in the sunlight of the early afternoon, Loki stood pale and shaking. How was he even still standing? Every now and again his shaking would become so pronounced it was like a full-body shudder. He looked positively cowed, and scared, and Jena felt her stomach twist. 

"Stark, he looks really bad."

"He is bad, dear." Stark muttered behind his coffee cup, eyes glued to his tablet. Heaven only knew what the fluctuating graphs and bars even meant. "We know because he's a villain." He wiggled his pinky at her before he took a loud slurp. 

"I know, but..." She glared at the entire group of SHIELD agents and Thor through her binoculars, chewing on her lip. "Something about this doesn't feel right. Tell me again why the muzzle is necessary?"

"Thor says Loki has the ability to make a lie sound like the truth and sway anyone to his side with his luminous blue eyes. Fury thinks its some voice-activated mind control, so Reindeer Games gets a mouth trap." Stark swiped at the screen, replacing the first set of graphs with another. "Why's he running a fever?" he mumbled to himself.

Jena shifted on the seat, focusing the binoculars on the Asguardian's face. Sweat beaded across his forehead and curled the ends of his hair. Jena realized he truly was shivering. "Maybe he's sick?" She wiggled her toes. Stark flexed his thigh, pressing the tops of her feet into the seat and wrapped a hand around her ankle. "And his eyes are green."

Stark stilled, the way he did when something in her history pissed him off but he was trying to hide it for her benefit. "J-berry, what color is the sky?" 

Jen rolled her eyes at his 'dad' voice. "The sky is blue. I know my colors and I'm looking right at him." Binoculars down, meet the Stark eyes. Yup, just as stormy as she thought they would be, but she wasn't backing down. "His eyes are green."

Stark dropped his tablet and swiped her binoculars, and a moment later he went still. Jena knew he'd need a minute or six to process his new data. She could practically see his brain doing all sorts of genius-billionaire somersaults between his ears. If Loki had had blue eyes when he had the scepter and now suddenly had green eyes, then maybe Loki wasn't completely in charge. She nearly asked Tony what color the alien's eyes were when they defeated him but he beat her to it. Stark's fingers flickered across the screen of his tablet again before a video showed up. Jena leaned against him in interest. She hadn't seen this one. 

She had a quick view of Loki, laid out in a crater on the penthouse floor (she recognized the bar from a trip up there two days ago), before the video began to play. When Loki had sat up, with great effort and visibly in pain, Stark zoomed in. There were cracks and rips in his armor, and Loki blinked slow and wide. The Avengers came to stand over him, and Loki tilted his face up. Tony tensed, stopping the video to zoom almost impossible close to the face onscreen. He pulled the tablet close to his face a second later, squinting. "They're fucking green."

Jena was not above a well-placed 'I told you so', but now wasn't the time. "When was the last time they were blue?"  
Stark tapped away at the little screen too fast for her to keep up, but soon there was another little video playing. Loki silently shouted up at Hulk - and now Jen completely understood the name choice - and she saw it. Right as Tony hit pause, Loki's hair flopped over his face and the bright blue of his irises glowed with menace. That...is definitely not the same person standing outside. 

Stark sat back, drumming the fingers of one hand on her shin, his brows furrowed. The tablet lay face up on his lap, creepy blue eyes staring up at them. "I don't think," he started slowly, "that we caught the right villain, J-bear."

"What?" That was mindboggling. Loki had wrecked havoc on the city, thousands dead. Sure, it definitely looked like it may not have been his fault, but did that really mean there was someone out there, controlling him? "Why can't the glowy rock stick have turned him into a space zombie? Why do you think there's someone else out there?" 

"Because he's terrified, not confused." He swiped at the screen again and brought up the first set of graphs he'd been studying earlier. "Elevated heart rate, a bunch of familiar stress hormones and a couple others I can't identify but that seem to have the same effect. He's sporting injuries that don't fit the timeline and if I didn't know any better I'd say he's been tortured." He pulled a the packet of dates out of his inner coat pocket and set it on her lap, fingers returning to curl around her ankle. "One plus one equals two, but these facts add up to a seven. That leaf shaking in the wind outside is not the madman who threw me out a window." He tossed the binoculars onto her lap and leaned forward. "You stay put." He pointed to the fruit in her lap. "And eat those."

She ignored him. "What are you going to do?" 

Stark crawled over to the rear doors. "Same thing I always do," his voice seemed to fill the space in the long limo. "Give 'em the ol' razzle dazzle."

Jena felt the anxiety crawl up the back of her throat. "Be careful, alright?"

Stark snorted as he stepped onto the pavement outside. "I'll duck."

 

~**~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~

 

He was going to be in sooo much trouble. 

Which, to be clear, Tony was fine with. He never had a problem getting in trouble. Having to deal with the trouble he got himself into was a different story. 

Thor still had Loki by the arm as he walked up, the barest furrow of impatience stirring across his blond eyebrows.   
"Ah, Friend Stark. Director Fury has assured me that you would be able to initiate the Tessaract to return Loki and I to Asgard."

Tony smirked the smirk that shut down the craftiest board members.  "Sure, Point Break, I can do that. but I'm not gonna."

In the resulting confusion - Bruce's "Stark!" sounded a good ten decibels lower than it should have - Tony tapped out the release code for Loki's muzzle on his phone. With a heavy-sounding 'snck', the muzzle fell to the ground with a clank that did nothing to drown out the sound of every agent present taking aim at his head.  

Just like that one time in Vegas. 

To his credit, Loki hadn't moved. In fact, the man, if he could be called that, looked more shocked than those around them. Tony carefully ignored the way Thor's hammer sung dangerously close to his jaw and kept his eyes on Loki. Moving would be a very bad idea right now. So he won't do that. Easy, right?

In the near silence, a car door swung open, and Tony felt his heart seize. 

"Stark!"

The _panic._ Oh the panic that gripped him right then -  "Jenavieve Pandora Stark you get back in that limo right this instant!"

"Don't shoot him! Don't shoot him, please don't shoot don'tshootson'tshoot - "

"Dammit, Jena - "

"You're in way over your head, Stark - " Okay, that was Fury, about to start the threats - 

"Consider well you actions, Man of Iron - " Thor. Duh. Next.

"Tony, what are you doing!" Captain Annoying, check. Where was Jena - 

"Don't make any sudden moves, Stark, or I will shoot you." Barton being a good bro with a warning, great but - where is she _whereisshe_ he never should have brought her along if SHIELD took her from him he'd burn them to the ground - 

"Jena?"

"I'm okay." 

Tony let his eyes slip closed and forced himself to keep breathing. She was fine, if scared, her voice high and tight like she was fighting off a panic attack. Okay, he could do this.

"I didn't realize you'd been mind-whammied, Stark, or I'd have - "

Oh come _on_. "Did any of you take a moment to realize Reindeer Games hasn't said a word? He's still standing here shivering in silence. If he was so evil shouldn't he have brainwashed us all already?"

He locked eyes with Loki, and took a minute to truly understand what he saw before him. Much of the pomp and grandeur that had marked the alien's rampage through the city was gone, which Tony considered could simply be a consequence of getting his ass kicked, but there was more. He'd seen the monitors; Loki was terrified. Sure maybe it was only fear of whatever punishment awaited him in space viking land, but Tony couldn't shake what he'd seen with his own eyes.  

Case and point, Loki's eyes. Greener than the trees behind them, if that could be possible. Wide open, pupils dilated, and slightly damp. Not a hint of the mad blue that Tony had faced up in the penthouse. Damn.

"I'm working on a theory here, Green Eyes, one I need you to confirm. When you threw me out of my penthouse window your eyes were the same electric blue as Hawkeye and the scientist, Selvig, which is the same electric blue as that rock in your scepter. Simple deduction tells me that anyone who gets whammied get's the blue-eyed treatment, and since you got the ultimate care in cognitive reclalibration courtesy of my not-so-friendly green giant buddy, I'm thinking you weren't the mastermind behind this whole fiasco. Were you?"

There was a second Tony thought Loki wouldn't answer. The Asguardian had all but stopped breathing, his eyes opening impossibly wide by the end of Tony's speech. Then, he took a breath, licked his lips once, twice, paused and closed his eyes. _'Bracing himself'_ Tony realized.

One long moment, then "No". Loki flinched hard, like the soft word had hurt him somehow, but just as quickly, those eyes popped open wide in disbelief. _Damn._

"You expected that to hurt." Tony heard someone swear behind him. 

"Yes," Loki confirmed. He shot a nervous look at the sniper behind Tony's head. "I expected that to hurt badly."

Tony blinked. Even the Asguardian's diction was different. "That means someone had to be controlling you, even monitoring you, from the moment you landed here."

Loki's hair fell into his eyes as he nodded, shaking again. "Yes."

Okay, too close to the danger zone. Tony considered his options, and the silence, before making his next move. He sent Thor a quelling glare when the Prince made to speak. "Did you want to come to earth at all, Loki?"

Loki seemed to shrink in on himself, shooting a furtive glance Thor's way. "Not this time."

"Not this time?" Fury's voice cut through the air from somewhere to Tony's left. "You've been here before?"  
Loki hunched in on himself, shooting looks at both Thor and Tony. "Y-yes? I have a house in Prague." He peered up at Tony. "I like Midgard."

"Brother!" The Asguardian prince shouted, bending low trying to catch Loki's eye. Or something. All Tony could see was Loki shielding his head, nearly curled up on the ground. Thunder crashed with every word and Thor's meaty grip on his arm the only thing keeping him up.

"You mean to say this madness is not of your own doing? Have you no shame? Innocent lives - "

"Thor, shut up. The adults are speaking." Thunder rumbled above them. Was that lightning in his _eyes_?

"Have care how you speak, Son of Stark. My brother - "

"If this is how you treat your brother," he gestured to Loki literally quivering on the ground, "then I hope you never have children."  
With color high in his cheeks, Thor had the good grace to look guilty. even if his grip on the magic hammer tightened.

"Loki, you with me?" That was soothing, right? He could be a bit soothing in the middle of an informal interrogation while he had a gun to his head, right? "Just a couple more questions and the I'll be out of your hair, alright?"

There was a moment of simply watching Loki-the-shivering-lump-of-alien, before he shifted. With more grace than Tony would have expected from him, Loki shakily rose to his feet. It didn't escape anyone's notice that he leaned as far away from Thor as the blonde's grip on his arm would allow. "I apologize." He enunciated the words like it hurt to say them. It probably did. "I don't feel quite myself, at the moment."

"Are you hurt?"

Barton scoffed, and he knew it was Barton because the gun held to the back of his head moved with the sound. "We just kicked his ass, Stark. Of course he's injured."

"Okay, let me clarify. Did you come to this planet injured? Were you injured before we started fighting?"

Loki hesitated, eyes flitting to those around them. Breathing quickening. Not good. 

"Hey, Tall and Pointy, look at me. Okay? It's alright, you don't have to answer. We'll take that as a yes, okay? One last question, and then we're done. Okay?" Loki didn't nod, but Tony knew he had his attention. Damn, but in that moment, Loki looked just as scared as Jena had the night he first met her. Something in his chest twitched, and Tony knew there was no turning back now. "Last one, buddy, alright? Who hurt you and forced you to come to earth?"

Here, a lone tear slid down Loki's cheek, and then he met Tony's eyes. Here, was resignation, the likes of which you only saw on a dying man. Loki took a breath, two more tears fell, and then he spoke. "Thanos."

And Loki screamed. 

 

~**~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~

 

It literally happened in the blink of an eye. 

One minute Tony was fine, interrogating Loki like he didn't have every gun in the area pointed at his head - and there were enough laser marks to verify that - the next he was down on the ground. Jena thought for one split second he had been shot before the view somehow cleared and she suddenly had a zoomed in view of the ground. Loki screamed, writhing and contorting like he was trying to come out of his body. Tony had grabbed his head, the one part of him that didn't move, and only God knew what the man was expecting the alien to hear over his own screams. 

Hawkeye had hit the ground, screaming and clutching his head. His gun fell who-knows-where and then Black Widow was next to him, holding him down and then Captain Rogers came to help and then suddenly someone was pulling her away, saying it wasn't safe and the next thing Jena knew she was back in the limo, someone blocking the door, trying to process just what had just happened. 

Three hours later she sat in a plain grey room with Stark, practically crushed against his side. Not that she could blame him. The man had been targeted with many assault weapons by people who could kill you with their pinkies, had been taken to a secret flying - flying! - airbase and then interrogated to within an inch of his life. And that was before they had tried to interrogate her. 

"Again, over my dead body."

It wasn't like she knew anything. At all. Really. Tony had not breathed a word about anything that didn't have to do with her eating, her sleeping, her wearing his clothes or him swearing to kill Maxwell for the last week. She found out Loki's name on the car ride to the park that morning. By accident. Interrogating her would be a complete waste of SHIELD's time. That didn't mean she wanted to be interrogated, though, so Stark could continue to try and fuse her to his spine, thanks. 

"Stark, you're being childish." Black Widow had a way of expressing so much with her voice that never made it onto her face. 

"Thank you. I'm glad you've noticed. Now, if you'll excuse me - "

"You think you're leaving? Stark, you just threw this entire operation into the air and shot it to death - "

"I did no such thing. All I did was ask a couple questions - "

" - Fury is spitting nails. Neither Barton, Selvig nor Loki are responding - "

" - the intelligent thing to do. Kind of like what an intelligence agency is suppo - "

" - keeps trying to see his brother and threatening to bring the might of Asgard down on our heads - "

" - but you were all so busy trying to ship him off you forgot to do your jobs - "

"and Coulson is alive."

"I - What?" Jena had no idea who Coulson was, but the way Stark dropped back into his seat meant he was someone important. "How?"

"We don't know. He _appeared_ in medical shortly after the attack and they managed to save him. It was dicey for a few days. He's in a medically induced coma. They're making sure nothing alien is gonna come out of this and bite us all in the butt, but he's alive."

Tony swore, and Jena watched Widow retake her seat. Maybe if she kept very still and very quiet she'd learn something else. "I gotta tell Pepper."

"That information doesn't leave this room," Widow snapped. She gave Tony a look that wasn't quite a glare but just as scary. "It's technically over your clearance level and you're not supposed to know, so zip it, Stark."

"So why tell me?" 

"Because I need you to trust me."

Tony snorted. Personally, Jena agreed. "Right. I don't follow your logic, here."

Widow shifted in her seat. "What I'm about to say doesn't leave this room." Here, she sent Jena a glare that could melt steel. Jen gulped and tried to hide behind Stark even more. "Fury is losing his mind over this entire situation. He wants to bring you in, but he has reservations. Thanos, for all we know of him, seems to be the worst kind of news, and Fury wants to get as far ahead of any plans he may have had for the planet as possible. This requires know-how and resources SHIELD does not have, but you do."

"Still not following. Why do I need to trust you?"

Widow's pause gave made Jena uncomfortable. "The Director is not above scare tactics. I've been ordered to get you on board using any means necessary, including threatening your daughter."

Stark went absolutely rigid, and for a moment Jena thought he'd stopped breathing. Thankfully, Widow wasn't done. "Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, Fury doesn't understand your motivations, or the lengths you'll go to to accomplish something you set your mind on. Since I'm not interested in you setting your mind on destroying SHIELD and everything it stands for, I'm telling you this information against direct orders. My suggestion, let me train her - 

"Over my dead body - "

"Will you stop being difficult for one moment and just think, Stark?" Widow barked, sitting forward in her seat. "Small lessons once or twice a week, simple things like self defense or Judo, escaping confinement things she's going to need if I fail this assignment and Fury sends in someone who won't pander to an overprotective father!" They glared at each other a moment before she sighed. "No guns. I'll tell Fury it was your one condition and that it seemed reasonable enough since we're all gonna be at the Tower anyway - "

"Oh? Says who?"

"I've been surveilling you this past week, Stark. I've seen the plans." Tony doesn't respond. "I told Fury you have a heart but for some reason he's convinced you do everything for your own benefit. I'm sure if he could see you with Jena - "

"Just stop it." Stark relaxed, and Jena shifted enough till the man had his own chair back. He sat stiffly though, which told her his mind was still doing that think-of-all-possible-scenarios thing. Not that she minded, but...

"I wouldn't mind the self-defense stuff." She tried to whisper it, but Jena could feel Widow's eyes on her. "I mean, I don't want to learn how to kill anyone, but if I could just learn how to get away from Maxwe - "

"You don't need to get away from someone you're never going to see again."

"Yeah, but, dad, you've said that before - " Stark looked at her so quickly Jena flinched, and something in Stark's eyes said plainly that she'd said the wrong thing. Maybe it was the dad thing. Was that too fast? Did he think she was trying to manipulate him? Granted, she was, but that also seemed as good a time as any to test it out, just to see if it was okay. Maybe it wasn't? "Sorry?"

Tony took her hand in a grip that was both firm and gentle and shot to his feet. "I'm taking my kid home. You can - "

"I can't let you do that, Stark. We're in the middle of a crisis."

They were out the door to the small office before Jena realized they were moving."I'll let you know when I've made my decision. Don't call us. We won't answer - "

"Stark! Stark, stop. That's not how this works. You - "

"Sorry, got a tired kid to put to bed, and we missed lunch. Gotta go." Four agents stepped out of a room up ahead, but Tony did not stop, shoving through the group and down the hallway. "Excuse me, pardon me. Genius, billionaire, philanthropist, _father_ coming through - " 

"Dammit, Stark! Stop, or I will shoot."

At this, Tony whipped around, somehow maneuvering her to stand directly behind him, out of the line of fire. She couldn't see his face, but Jena knew by the set of his shoulders that Tony was pissed. 

"Do you want me to destroy your helicarrier? It's only been a week, but I can knock it out of the air for you no problem if you like. Don't you _ever point a gun at my daughter again,_ Natalie, or you won't live to regret it." From around Tony's arm, Jena watched Widow stash her gun and raise both hands up, empty. The suits milled behind her, looking unsure if they should pull their weapons or not. 

"Stark, you have to know I'm not the bad guy here."

"You tell Fury that I said he can sweat for a bit, and if it gets to be too much, he can take a vacation. That's what he said when I told him what I saw in the portal, so I guess its good enough for him too. If I don't call you, you don't call me. Do your damn jobs, and I'll do mine. Got it?"

Widow gave him a sour look. "Got it. Let them pass."

A series of clicks sounded behind her and Jena jumped, only to find a squad of six armed agents arranged down the corridor, all standing against the walls to clear the hallway. With one more look over his shoulder, Tony led her away. 

They were back at the tower within the hour. 


End file.
